A^.  ^ 


§^j  3.  Jingcr-lpoint  from  jpigmoutl)  Hock. 


REMARKS 


PLYMOUTH    FESTIVAL, 


THE    FIRST    OF    AUGUST,    1853. 

IN    COMMEMOEATION   OP 

THE   EMBARKATION   OF   THE   PILGRIMS. 


CHARLES    SUMNER. 


BOSTON: 
CROSBY,    NICHOLS,    AND    COMPANY, 

111  Washington  Stkeet. 
1853. 


CAMBRIDGE: 
METCALF  AND   COMPANY,   FRLNTKRS  TO  THE  UNIVBESITT. 


UCSB   LIBRARY 


REMARKS. 


The  President,  in  giving  the  next  toast,  said  they  had  already- 
been  delighted  with  the  words  of  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States.  They  were  favored  with  the 
presence  of  another  ;  and  he  would  give  as  a  sentiment :  — 

^^The  Senate  of  the  United  States, — The  concentrated  light 
of  the  stars  of  the  Union." 

Hon.  Charles  Sumner  responded  as  follows :  — 

Mr.  President,  —  You  bid  me  speak  for  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States.  But  I  cannot  forget  that  there 
is  another  voice  here,  of  classical  eloquence,  which 
might  more  fitly  render  this  service.  As  one  of  the 
humblest  members  of  that  body,  and  associated  with 
the  public  councils  for  a  brief  period  only,  I  should 
prefer  that  my  distinguished  colleague  [Mr.  Everett], 
whose  fame  is  linked  with  a  long  political  life,  should 
speak  for  it.     And  there  is  yet  another  here  [Mr. 


Hale],  who,  though  not  at  this  moment  a  member  of 
the  Senate,  has,  throughout  an  active  and  brilliant 
career,  marked  by  a  rare  combination  of  ability,  elo- 
quence, and  good  humor,  so  identified  himself  with 
it  in  the  public  mind,  that  he  might  well  speak  for  it 
always,  and  when  he  speaks  all  are  pleased  to  listen. 
But,  sir,  you  have  ordered  it  otherwise. 

From  the  tears  and  trials  at  Delft  Haven,  from  the 
deck  of  the  "  Mayflower,"  from  the  landing  at  Ply- 
mouth Rock,  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  is  a 
mighty  contrast,  covering  whole  spaces   of  history, 
hardly  less  than  from  the  wolf  that  suckled  Romulus 
and  Remus  to  that  Roman  Senate  which,  on  curule 
chairs,  swayed  Italy  and  the  world.     From  these  ob- 
scure beginnings  of  poverty  and  weakness,  which 
you  now  piously  commemorate,  and  on  which  all  our 
minds  naturally  rest  to-day,  you  bid  us  leap  to  that 
marble  Capitol,  where  thirty-one  powerful  republics, 
bound  in  indissoluble  union,  a  Plural  Unit,  are  gath- 
ered together  in  legislative  body,  constituting  a  part 
of  One  Government,  which,  stretching  from  ocean  to 
ocean,  and  counting  millions  of  people  beneath  its 
majestic  rule,  surpasses  far  in  wealth  and  might  any 
government  of  the  Old  World  when  the.  little  band 
of  Pilgrims  left  it,  and  now  promises  to  be  a  clasp 
between  Europe  and  Asia,  bringing  the  most  dis- 


tant  places  near  together,  so  that  there  shall  be  no 
more  Orient  or  Occident.  It  were  interesting  to 
dwell  on  the  stages  of  this  grand  procession ;  but  it 
is  enough  on  this  occasion  merely  to  glance  at  them 
and  pass  on. 

Sir,  it  is  the  Pilgrims  that  we  commemorate  to-day ; 
not  the  Senate.  For  this  moment,  at  least,  let  us 
tread  under  foot  all  pride  of  empire,  all  exultation  in 
our  manifold  triumphs  of  industry,  of  science,  of  lit- 
erature, with  all  the  crowding  anticipations  of  the 
vast  untold  Future,  that  we  may  reverently  bow  be- 
fore the  forefathers.  The  day  is  theirs.  In  the  con- 
templation of  their  virtue  we  shall  derive  a  lesson, 
which,  like  truth,  may  judge  us  sternly;  but,  if  we 
can  really  follow  it,  like  truth,  it  shall  make  us  free. 
For  myself,  I  accept  the  admonitions  of  the  day.  It 
may  teach  us  all  never,  by  word  or  act,  although  we 
may  be  few  in  numbers  or  alone,  to  swerve  from 
those  primal  principles  of  duty,  which,  from  the  land- 
ing at  Plymouth  Eock,  have  been  the  life  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Let  me  briefly  unfold  the  lesson  ;  though 
to  the  discerning  soul  it  unfolds  itself 

Few  persons  in  history  have  suffered  more  from 
contemporary  misrepresentation,  abuse,  and  persecu- 
tion, than  the  English  Puritans.  At  first  a  small 
body,  they  were  regarded  with  indifference  and  con- 
1* 


& 


tempt.  But  by  degrees  they  grew  in  numbers,  and 
drew  into  their  company  men  of  education,  intelli- 
gence, and  even  of  rank.  Reformers  in  all  ages  have 
had  little  of  blessing  from  the  world  which  they 
sought  to  serve ;  but  the  Puritans  were  not  dis- 
heartened. Still  they  persevered.  The  obnoxious 
laws  of  conformity  they  vowed  to  withstand  till,  in 
the  fervid  language  of  the  time,  "  they  be  sent  back 
to  the  darkness  from  whence  they  came."  Through 
them  the  spirit  of  modern  Freedom  made  itself  potent- 
ly felt,  in  its  great  warfare  with  Authority,  in  Church, 
in  Literature,  and  in  the  State;  in  other  words, 
for  religious,  intellectual,  and  political  emancipation. 
The  Puritans  primarily  aimed  at  religious  Freedom ; 
for  this  they  contended  in  Parliament,  under  Eliza- 
beth and  James ;  for  this  they  suffered ;  but  so  con- 
nected are  all  these  great  and  glorious  interests,  that 
the  struggles  for  one  have  always  helped  the  others. 
Such  service  did  they  do,  that  Hume,  whose  cold 
nature  sympathized  little  with  their  burning  souls, 
is  obliged  to  confess  that  to  them  alone  "  the  Eng- 
lish owe  the  whole  freedom  of  their  constitution." 

As  among  all  reformers,  so  among  them  there  were 
differences  of  degree.  Some  continued  within  the 
pale  of  the  National  Church,  and  there  pressed  their 
ineffectual   attempts   in  behalf  of  the   good   cause. 


Some  at  length,  driven  by  conscientious  convictions 
and  unwilling  to  be  partakers  longer  in  its  enormi- 
ties, stung  also  by  the  cruel  excesses  of  magisterial 
power,  openly  disclaimed  the  National  Establishment 
and  became  a  separate  sect,  first  under  the  name  of 
Brownists,  from  the  person  who  had  led  in  this  new 
organization,  and  then  under  the  better  name  of  Sep- 
aratists. I  like  this  word,  sir.  It  has  a  meaning. 
After  long  struggles  in  Parliament  and  out  of  it,  in 
Church  and  State,  continued  through  successive 
reigns,  the  Puritans  finally  triumphed,  and  the  de- 
spised sect  of  Separatists,  swollen  in  numbers,  and 
now  under  the  denomination  of  Independents,  with 
Oliver  Cromwell  at  their  head  and  John  Milton  as 
his  Secretary,  ruled  England.  Thus  is  prefigured 
the  final  triumph  of  all,  however  few  in  numbers, 
who  sincerely  devote  themselves  to  Truth. 

The  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth  were  among  the  earliest 
of  the  Separatists.  As  such,  they  knew  by  bitter  ex- 
perience all  the  sharpness  of  persecution.  Against 
them  the  men  in  power  raged  like  the  heathen. 
Against  them  the  whole  fury  of  the  law  was  directed. 
Some  were  imprisoned ;  all  were  impoverished,  while 
their  name  became  a  by-word  of  reproach.  For  safety 
and  freedom  the  little  band  first  sought  shelter  in  Hol- 
land, where  they  continued  in  indigence  and  obscu^ 


8^ 


rity  for  more  than  ten  years,  when  they  were  inspired 
to  seek  a  home  in  this  unknown  "Western  world. 
Such  in  brief  is  their  history.  I  could  not  say  more 
of  it  without  intruding  upon  your  time ;  I  could  not 
say  less  without  injustice  to  them. 

Rarely  have  austere  principles  been  expressed  with 
more  gentleness  than  from  their  lips.  By  a  covenant 
with  the  Lord,  they  had  vowed  to  walk  in  all  his 
ways,  according  to  their  best  endeavors,  whatsoever 
it  should  cost  them,  —  and  also  to  receive  whatsoever 
truth  should  be  made  known  from  the  written  word 
of  God.  Repentance  and  prayers,  patience  and  tears, 
were  their  weapons.  "  It  is  not  with  us,"  said  they, 
"  as  with  other  men,  whom  small  things  can  discour- 
age or  small  discontentments  cause  to  wish  them- 
selves at  home  again."  And  then,  again,  on  another 
occasion,  their  souls  were  lifted  to  utterance  like 
this:  "When  we  are  in  our  graves  it  will  be  all  one, 
whether  we  have  lived  in  plenty  or  penury,  whether 
we  have  died  in  a  bed  of  down  or  on  locks  of  straw." 
Self-sacrifice  is  never  in  vain,  and  they  foresaw,  with 
the  clearness  of  prophecy,  that  out  of  their  trials 
should  come  a  transcendent  Future.  "  As  one  small 
candle,"  said  an  early  Pilgrim  Governor,  "  may  light 
a  thousand,  so  the  light  kindled  here  may  in  some 
sort  shine  even  to  the  whole  nation." 


9 


And  yet  these  men,  with  such  sublime  endurance 
and  such  lofty  faith,  are  among  those  who  are  some- 
times called  "  Puritan  knaves  "  and  "  knaves-Puri- 
tan," and  who  were  branded  by  King  James  as  the 
"  very  pests  in  the  Church  and  Commonwealth." 
The  small  company  of  our  forefathers  became  the 
jest  and  gibe  of  fashion  and  power.  The  phrase 
"men  of  one  idea"  had  not  been  invented  then;  but, 
in  equivalent  language,  they  were  styled  "  the  pinched 
fanatics  of  Leyden."  A  contemporary  poet  and  fa- 
vorite of  Charles  the  First,  Thomas  Carew,  lent  his 
genius  to  their  defamation.  A  masque,  from  his 
elegant  and  careful  pen,  w^as  performed  by  the  mon- 
arch and  his  courtiers,  wherein  the  whole  plantation 
of  New  England  was  turned  to  royal  sport.  The 
jeer  broke  forth  in  the  exclamation,  that  it  had 
"  purged  more  virulent  humors  from  the  politic 
bodies  than  guaiacum  and  all  the  West  Indian  drugs 
from  the  natural  bodies  of  the  kinsrdom." 

And  these  outcasts,  despised  in  their  own  day  by 
the  proud  and  great,  are  the  men  whom  we  have  met 
in  this  goodly  number  to  celebrate ;  not  for  any  vic- 
tory of  war ;  not  for  any  triumph  of  discovery,  sci- 
ence, learning,  or  eloquence ;  not  for  worldly  success 
of  any  kind.  How  poor  are  all  these  things  by  the 
side  of  that  divine  virtue  which  made  them,  amidst 


UCSBllBRARY 


10 


the  reproach,  the  obloquy,  and  the  hardness  of  the 
world,  hold  fast  to  Freedom  and  Truth !  Sir,  if  the 
honors  of  this  day  are  not  a  mockery ;  if  they  do  not 
expend  themselves  in  mere  selfish  gratulation ;  if 
they  are  a  sincere  homage  to  the  character  of  the 
Pilgrims, — and  I  cannot  suppose  otherwise, — then 
is  it  well  for  us  to  be  here.  Standing  on  Plymouth 
E-ock,  at  their  great  anniversary,  we  cannot  fail  to 
be  elevated  by  their  example.  We  see  clearly  what 
it  has  done  for  the  world  and  what  it  has  done  for 
their  fame.  No  pusillanimous  soul  here  to-day  will 
declare  their  self-sacrifice,  their  deviation  from  re- 
ceived opinions,  their  unquenchable  thirst  for  liberty, 
an  error  or  illusion.  From  gushing  multitudinous 
hearts  we  now  thank  these  lowly  men  that  they  dared 
to  be  true  and  brave.  Conformity  or  compromise 
might,  perhaps,  have  purchased  for  them  a  profitable 
peace,  but  not  peace  of  mind ;  it  might  have  se- 
cured place  and  power,  but  not  repose ;  it  might 
have  opened  a  present  shelter,  but  not  a  home  in  his- 
tory and  in  men's  hearts  till  time  shall  be  no  more. 
All  will  confess  the  true  grandeur  of  their  example, 
while,  in  vindication  of  a  cherished  principle,  they 
stood  alone,  against  the  madness  of  men,  against 
the  law  of  the  land,  against  their  king.  Better  be 
the  despised  Pilgrim,    a  fugitive  for  freedom,  than 


..•■* 


11 


the   halting   politician,  forgetful  of  principle,  "  with 
a  Senate  at  his  heels." 

Such,  sir,  is  the  voice  from  Plymouth  Rock,  as  it 
salutes  my  ears.  Others  may  not  hear  it.  But  to 
me  it  comes  in  tones  which  I  cannot  mistake.  I 
catch  its  words  of  noble  cheer :  — 

"  New  occasions  teach  new  duties  ;  Time  makes  ancient  good 
uncouth  ; 

They  must  upward  still  and  onward,  who  would  keep  abreast  of 
Truth: 

Lo,  before  us  gleam  her  camp-fires  !  we  ourselves  must  Pil- 
grims be, 

Launch  our  Mayflower,  and  steer  boldly  through  the  desperate 
winter  sea." 


•• 


